[Marxism] Fwd: Why You Should Junk Netflix » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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And Start Watching Films with a Brain and a Heart
Why You Should Junk Netflix
by LOUIS PROYECT

If any further evidence of the uselessness of Netflix was needed, I 
refer you to the recently concluded four-picture deal with Adam Sandler, 
who is to movies as Danielle Steel and Ken Follett are to the novel. Did 
you ever forget to bring a book with you on a long airplane trip and 
stop in at an airline terminal to look for something to read? Wall to 
wall Steel and Follett, right? Bummer. That’s the same reaction I have 
been having lately looking for something to watch on Netflix. That is 
not to speak of the cheesy menu that basically propagates the same junk 
across “Popular on Netflix”, “Recently Added” and “New Releases”. A 
quick look there turns up “Jackass presents: Grandpa” and “The Coed and 
the Zombie Stoner”. Considering the fact that most Netflix subscribers 
have never heard of Kurosawa or Godard, it is quite a statement that 
“The Coed and the Zombie Stoner” only garnered one and a half stars, an 
inflated grade considering the fact that you can’t rate something as 
zero stars.


full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/10/why-you-should-junk-netflix/

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[Marxism] Argentina: The Takeover of the RR Donnelley Factory. “Behind Every Worker is a Family” (Counterpunch)

[Juan Andres Gallardo via Marxism]

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.

Counterpunch


The Takeover of the RR Donnelley Factory: “Behind Every Worker is a Family”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/10/behind-every-worker-is-a-family


by WENDY Z. GOLDMAN
 In late September, I was invited to Buenos Aires to speak about the recent
Spanish translation of a book on the Bolshevik vision of women’s liberation
that I first published in 1993, Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet
Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936.  The book, translated and
published by Pan y Rosas (Bread and Roses), a socialist women’s
organization, received a new life when it was published in Spanish in
Argentina, and then, in Portuguese by Boitempo in Brazil.  Workers and
students embraced the ideas that the Bolsheviks had put into practice
almost a century ago.  In Buenos Aires, I spoke to a crowded auditorium of
700 workers, students, and faculty.  Workers came from the Lear plant, from
the transportation sector, and from other factories.   One of the most
moving comments was made by an older domestic worker who came up to the
stage.  She explained that she spent her entire life cleaning the houses of
wealthy people.  “The Bolsheviks talked about the socialization of
household labor,” she said.  “Today, only women do this work.  And if a
woman is wealthy enough, she pays another women like me to do it.”  One of
the members of Pan y Rosas later told me that some of the women workers in
the audience cried when they heard about the early socialist vision for
transforming daily life and human relationships.

read More..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/10/behind-every-worker-is-a-family

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[Marxism] The Pentagon School of Falsification - Rewriting the Vietnam War

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/us/pentagons-web-timeline-brings-back-vietnam-and-protesters-.html?_r=0

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[Marxism] Fwd: Has Obama Changed His Mind About Syria? » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Hands down, Mike Whitney is the stupidest pundit on Syria, especially on 
the question of "democratic concessions":


One can only hope that Obama will grasp the inherent risks of the poring 
more gas on the Middle East, reject the orders of his deep state 
handlers, and seek a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria. That, of 
course, would require cooperation with Syria’s allies, Russia and Iran, 
to settle on a way to defeat the jihadis, strengthen Syria’s sovereign 
control over its own territory, and restore peace across the country. No 
doubt Assad would be more than willing to make democratic concessions if 
he believed it would save his country from the destruction of a 
full-blown war.


full: 
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/10/has-obama-changed-his-mind-about-syria/


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[Marxism] Fwd: Waiting for August | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Opening today at the Quad in New York, “Waiting for October” is a cinema 
vérité Romanian documentary about seven children fending for themselves 
while their mother works as a housekeeper in Italy in order to provide 
the money the family needs to stay afloat. The father is unaccounted 
for—we don’t know if he is deceased or has simply bailed ship.


Like the best cinema vérité, especially early Frederick Wiseman, the 
film is making a point about society but without being too obvious about 
it. The subject under consideration is the precariousness of 
post-Communist Romania. At one point, just before Christmas, the 
children, who range from 15 to 4 by all appearances, are chatting about 
the upcoming holiday. One of the older children says that the TV will be 
showing pictures of that guy who was killed around Christmas time years 
ago. Who do you mean, asks the other? Ceausescu is the reply. He was the 
dictator under Communism when we had it so bad. You had to stand on line 
for bread rations. The irony is not lost on the audience who cannot help 
but be dismayed by the thin line that separates the seven kids from 
disaster. When you see a ten year old cutting potatoes for dinner, you 
wonder how long it will take for her to cut her hand. That is the 
feeling you are left with throughout the film. The suspense is whether 
they will all make it safely until August, when mom returns.


full: http://louisproyect.org/2014/10/10/waiting-for-august/

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Re: [Marxism] Bill Maher Isn�t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion

[Jeff via Marxism]

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At 09:07 10-10-14 -0400, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
>
>NY Times, Oct. 10 2014
>Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion
>By REZA ASLAN

Well I don't know anything about Bill Maher, but this essay is right on the
mark! I was nodding along with every sentence as I kept reading:
>
>The abiding nature of scripture rests not so much in its truth claims as 
>it does in its malleability, its ability to be molded and shaped into 
>whatever form a worshiper requires.

and suddenly realized that this sentence applies equally well to Marxism.
Ouch.

- Jeff



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[Marxism] Food as a strategic weapon

[michael perelman via Marxism]

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Yves Smith posted part of my globalization talk that I will give in Turkey
next week.  Let me know what you think

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/globalization-free-trade-and-food-as-a-strategic-weapon.html

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com

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[Marxism] Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Oct. 10 2014
Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion
By REZA ASLAN

BILL MAHER’s recent rant against Islam has set off a fierce debate about 
the problem of religious violence, particularly when it comes to Islam.


Mr. Maher, who has argued that Islam is unlike other religions (he 
thinks it’s more “like the Mafia”), recently took umbrage with President 
Obama’s assertion that the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, 
or ISIS, does not represent Islam. In Mr. Maher’s view, Islam has “too 
much in common with ISIS.”


His comments have led to a flurry of responses, perhaps none so 
passionate as that of the actor Ben Affleck, who lambasted Mr. Maher, on 
Mr. Maher’s own HBO show, for “gross” and “racist” generalizations about 
Muslims.


Yet there is a real lack of sophistication on both sides of the argument 
when it comes to discussing religion and violence.


On one hand, people of faith are far too eager to distance themselves 
from extremists in their community, often denying that religious 
violence has any religious motivation whatsoever. This is especially 
true of Muslims, who often glibly dismiss those who commit acts of 
terror in the name of Islam as “not really Muslim.”


On the other, critics of religion tend to exhibit an inability to 
understand religion outside of its absolutist connotations. They scour 
holy texts for bits of savagery and point to extreme examples of 
religious bigotry, of which there are too many, to generalize about the 
causes of oppression throughout the world.


What both the believers and the critics often miss is that religion is 
often far more a matter of identity than it is a matter of beliefs and 
practices. The phrase “I am a Muslim,” “I am a Christian,” “I am a Jew” 
and the like is, often, not so much a description of what a person 
believes or what rituals he or she follows, as a simple statement of 
identity, of how the speaker views her or his place in the world.


As a form of identity, religion is inextricable from all the other 
factors that make up a person’s self-understanding, like culture, 
ethnicity, nationality, gender and sexual orientation. What a member of 
a suburban megachurch in Texas calls Christianity may be radically 
different from what an impoverished coffee picker in the hills of 
Guatemala calls Christianity. The cultural practices of a Saudi Muslim, 
when it comes to the role of women in society, are largely irrelevant to 
a Muslim in a more secular society like Turkey or Indonesia. The 
differences between Tibetan Buddhists living in exile in India and 
militant Buddhist monks persecuting the Muslim minority known as the 
Rohingya, in neighboring Myanmar, has everything to do with the 
political cultures of those countries and almost nothing to do with 
Buddhism itself.


No religion exists in a vacuum. On the contrary, every faith is rooted 
in the soil in which it is planted. It is a fallacy to believe that 
people of faith derive their values primarily from their Scriptures. The 
opposite is true. People of faith insert their values into their 
Scriptures, reading them through the lens of their own cultural, ethnic, 
nationalistic and even political perspectives.


After all, scripture is meaningless without interpretation. Scripture 
requires a person to confront and interpret it in order for it to have 
any meaning. And the very act of interpreting a scripture necessarily 
involves bringing to it one’s own perspectives and prejudices.


The abiding nature of scripture rests not so much in its truth claims as 
it does in its malleability, its ability to be molded and shaped into 
whatever form a worshiper requires. The same Bible that commands Jews to 
“love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) also exhorts them to 
“kill every man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and 
donkey,” who worship any other God (1 Sam. 15:3). The same Jesus Christ 
who told his disciples to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39) also 
told them that he had “not come to bring peace but the sword” (Matthew 
10:34), and that “he who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and 
buy one” (Luke 22:36). The same Quran that warns believers “if you kill 
one person it is as though you have killed all of humanity” (5:32) also 
commands them to “slay the idolaters wherever you find them” (9:5).


How a worshiper treats these conflicting commandments depends on the 
believer. If you are a violent misogynist, you will find plenty in your 
scriptures to justify your beliefs. If you are a peaceful, democratic 
feminist, you will also find justification in the scriptures for your 
point of view.


What does this mean, in

Re: [Marxism] The US quid pro quo

[Marv Gandall via Marxism]

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On Oct 10, 2014, at 7:35 AM, Michael Karadjis  wrote:

> -Original Message- From: Marv Gandall via Marxism
> 
>> Former ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, reveals to FP that such assistance 
>> has been conditional on the support of the two left-wing Kurdish parties - 
>> the PYD in Syria and PKK in Turkey - for the joint effort by the US and 
>> Turkish governments and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to overthrow the Assad 
>> regime in Damascus. Despite having designated the PKK as a “terrorist” 
>> organization, secret talks between the US and the left-wing Kurdish parties 
>> to this end have been held over the past two years.
> 
> That isn’t the way I read either the FP article or the secret correspondence 
> at its end.

[…]


> I read nothing about the US conditioning support to the PYD on its support 
> "for the joint effort by the US and Turkish governments and the Free Syrian 
> Army (FSA) to overthrow the Assad regime in Damascus." First, that would 
> require the US to have such a goal. In FP, Ford says "The main thing is we 
> believed there needed to be a political solution that had to be negotiated 
> (ie, the eternal and only US view of the Syrian crisis). The Kurds needed to 
> be involved in that, even if we didn't think the PYD was fully representative 
> of the Kurds. We wanted to understand why they continued to work with the 
> regime and why they were hostile to Kurdish activists in the KNC."
> 
> "To know why they continued to work with the regime" is different to 
> demanding they support the overthrow of the regime. As noted, the PKK/PYD 
> deny the accusation in any case.

Yes, you’re correct, Michael. This morning’s Wall Street Journal supports your 
view. It reports, probably with some exaggeration, on “harsh criticism from 
Washington” and a “dangerous rift” between the US and Turkey having opened 
concerning the overthrow of the Assad regime which is reflected in the Erdogan 
government’s inaction on Kobani - apart from the long-standing hostility of the 
Turkish state to the PKK/PYD, of course.

Turkey Sits Out Battle in Syrian Border City
Ankara Chooses Not to Intervene in Fight Between Islamic State, Kurdish Militia
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
Wall Street Journal
October 10 2014

Turkey’s unwillingness to intervene in the battle over a predominantly Kurdish 
Syrian city on its border has earned the country harsh criticism from 
Washington, exposing a dangerous rift over how the two allies want to tackle 
Islamic State’s rise.

After more than three weeks of fighting for Kobani and its surroundings, the 
extremist group edged closer to seizing the city from Syrian Kurdish militia 
fighters on Thursday. By nighttime, city officials said the militants had 
managed to gain control of about a quarter of Kobani despite 19 U.S.-led 
airstrikes in the area in two days. The battle has unfolded within sight of 
Turkish tanks parked at the border.

In an effort to find a common approach on how and against whom the war in Syria 
should be waged, the Obama administration’s coordinator of the campaign against 
Islamic State, retired Marine Gen. John Allen, went to Turkey on Thursday to 
meet with senior officials.

But after a first day of talks in Ankara between Gen. Allen and Turkish 
officials, including Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the State Department 
announced no breakthrough on issues dividing the two countries and indicated in 
a statement that discussions were likely to continue for some time. A joint 
military planning team will visit Ankara next week, U.S. officials said.

The U.S., which started airstrikes on Islamic State following the group’s rapid 
advances in Iraq this summer, sees the militant organization as the main foe in 
an unsavory neighborhood.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has staked his international 
standing on ousting Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, views the Assad regime’s 
brutality as the root cause of Islamic State’s rise. He is pressing the U.S. 
and its allies to commit to fighting Mr. Assad with the same vigor as they are 
fighting Islamic State.

“The government is not going to budge on this,” a Turkish official said of 
Ankara’s demand for a strategy shift. “As long as you have Assad there, with 
his policies of dropping barrel bombs, chemical weapons, this vicious cycle is 
going to continue on and on with more groups, different groups, coming in.”

Turkey also has little love lost for the Syrian Kurdish militias under attack 
in Kobani. These militias are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or 
PKK, the Kurdish separatist movement that the U.S. classifies as a terrorist 
group. Though PKK is currently engaged in peace talks with Ankara, it battled 
the Turkish state for more than 30 years, for much of that tim

[Marxism] Fwd: Kobani: anger grows as Turkey stops Kurds from aiding militias in Syria | World news | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/08/kobani-isis-turkey-kurds-ypg-syria-erdogan

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[Marxism] Fwd: BBC News - Kobane fighting: IS meets its match in Syrian Kurdish forces

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29556005

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[Marxism] Fwd: Academia, the 'battleground' in the Palestinian solidarity movement

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(I call your attention to the reference to Hatem Bazian below. He was 
the keynote speaker at a Syrian revolution rally I attended in 
Washington in 2012, not Sarah Palin. You can check out what he had to 
say here: 
http://louisproyect.org/2012/09/06/report-on-september-2nd-rally-for-syrian-revolution/.)


On September 23 2014, Palestinian solidarity activists took part in the 
International Day of Action on College Campuses, calling for students 
and faculty around the world to pressure their academic institutions to 
support justice, human rights, and freedom for the Palestinian people.


The International Day of Action officially stated as its demands:

No to Academic Complicity with Israeli Occupation
No to Study Abroad Programs in Israel
No Investments in Apartheid and Occupation Supporting Companies
No to University Presidents’ Visits to Israel
No Campus Police Training or Cooperation with Israeli Security
No Joint Research or Conferences with Israeli Institutions
No Cooperation with Hasbara Networks on College Campuses
No to Targeting Faculty for Speaking Against Israeli Crimes
No to Administrative Limits on Free Speech Rights of Palestine Activists
No to University Coordination and Strategizing with the ADL, JCRC, AJC, 
Stand With US, ZOA, Israeli Consulate to Limit Students Pro-Palestine 
Constitutionally Protected Activities.


The call was spearheaded by Hatem Bazian, a professor at the University 
of California, Berkeley. A large rally was held at this school, with 
over 300 attendees.


full: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/battleground-palestinian-solidarity

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Re: [Marxism] two books

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 10/10/14 6:32 AM, Daniel Gaido wrote:

Pierre Broué, /Histoire de l'Internationale communiste//, 1919-1943,
/Paris: Fayard, 1997. 1120 p.
http://tinyurl.com/ptdq54k


I wish I read French. Broue's book on the abortive German revolution is 
great.



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[Marxism] Venezuelan public (?) housing

[Robert Austin Henry via Marxism]

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Roberto Armando Ramírez has posted an interesting 
article analysing the government's housing policy 
from a Marxist perspective, at 
http://alemcifo.org/ArticulosHTML/EstafaViviendas.html


Its principal arguments include that (a) the 
structure of state housing loans excludes a 
sizeable part of the economically active labour 
force; (b) the continuation of private housing, 
unlike state housing, fails to break the nexus 
with capitalist commodification of housing and a 
fundamental form of private property; and (c) the 
imposition of a minimum but no maximum income 
requirement means that the program excludes a 
large strata of those it is meant to cater for, 
while allowing well-heeled applicants to borrow at preferential state rates.


Robert Austin Henry, Grad. Cert. IV (Workplace 
Ed), BA (Hons), Grad. Dip. Ed., M.Ed, Ph.D

Honorary Research Fellow, School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
University of Queensland, St Lucia, Q. 4072, Australia
http://www.uq.edu.au/hprc/?page=171110&pid=0
http://buscatextual.cnpq.br/buscatextual/visualizacv.do?id=K4327728J7

[]
 Por favor, considere el medioambiente antes de 
imprimir éste mensaje; please consider the 
environment before printing this message.


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Re: [Marxism] U.S. Focus on ISIS Frees Syria to Battle Rebels

[Clay Claiborne via Marxism]

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http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-role-of-us-imperialism-in-syria-and.html

*Tuesday 23 September 2014* On the day the US strikes started, this is what
Assad's air force did:
[1]:  Aleppo
Province: Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs onto areas near al Imam al
Nawawi mosque in the neighborhood of Tariq al Bab leading to the injury of
some people. Two other barrels were dropped onto the neighborhoods of
Masaken Hanano and Jabal Badro in the east of Aleppo.

[2]:  Idleb
Province: Some surface-to-surface missiles struck areas in the city of Khan
Sheikhon followed by the dropping of barrel bombs onto the city killing a
man, his daughter and a woman while others were injured. Helicopters
dropped barrel bombs onto areas in the town of Saraqeb with no information
about casualties.

[3]:  Helicopters
dropped 5 barrel bombs onto areas in the west of Khan al Shih Camp and 5
barrels onto places in Bet Sayer in the Western Ghouta,  casualties were
reported in Bet Sayer.

[4]:  Idleb
Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on the town of Ma’er Zayta in the
southern countryside of Idleb.

[5]:  Warplanes
carried out a raid on al Dokhaneyyi area and 9 raids on the Wastelands of
al Qalamun.

[6]:  Idleb
Province: Warplanes carried out 3 raids on areas in the town of Khan al
Sobol, 2 raids on the town of Madaya in the southern countryside, a raid on
the outskirts of al Hbet town, a raid on the southern outskirts of Ma’arret
al Nu’man, a raid on the town of al Rkaya and a raid on the town of Deir
Sonbol leading to the killing of 2 children from the same family in Khan al
Sobol. They also attacked areas in the town of al Taman’a.

[7]:  Daraa
Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on an area in the town of Kafar
Nasej.

*Wednesday 24 September 2014*
[8]:  Helicopters
dropped barrel bombs onto areas in Handarat Camp. Two barrel bombs dropped
near the Central Prison of Aleppo. A woman died while other were injured
due to air raids launched on the town of Qbasin near the city of al Bab.

Most telling about the unity that has developed between the US air force
and Assad's is that in one case the SOHR had to report:
 *"It is unknown
till the moment whether the aircrafts that attacked the area are affiliated
to the Syrian regime or to the International-Arab Coalition." *

[9]:  Deir Ezzor
Province: Warplanes attacked areas in the village of al Shola with no
information about casualties. They also carried out a raid in the vicinity
of Deir Ezzor airbase.

[10]: 
Helicopters dropped 7 barrel bombs onto the city of al Rastan with no
information about casualties.

[11]: 
Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs onto areas in the town of Allatamneh.

[12]: 
Helicopters dropped 4 explosive barrels on al-Zabdani, no reports of losses.

*Thursday 25 September 2014*
[13]:  8
civilians ( 3 children and a woman ), killed by aerial bombardment on Duma,
a man killed by regime's bombardment on Duma, a woman killed by air strikes
on Arbin, and a man from al-Abada town.

Apparently, in the first days of US air strikes, Assad didn't entirely
trust the US promise that he could carry on with his usual routine. The
SOHR reported: *
"The provinces of Deir Ezzor, al Raqqa, al Hasaka, Homs, Aleppo and Idleb
have witnessed a significant reduction in the regime’s aerial bombardment,
where the rate of strikes has declined since the beginning of the
International- Arab Coalition aerial strikes 2 days ago. There have been
only few sorties during the last two days while aerial bombardment stopped
completely in some provinces."* That changed as his confidence built that
the US was not going to interfere with his carnage.

*Friday 26 September 2014*
[14]:  Homs
Province: Helicopters dropped 4 barrel bombs onto the city of al Rastan
causing the death of 7 people while others were injured.

[15]: 

Re: [Marxism] The US quid pro quo

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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-Original Message- 
From: Marv Gandall via Marxism


Former ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, reveals to FP that such 
assistance has been conditional on the support of the two left-wing 
Kurdish parties - the PYD in Syria and PKK in Turkey - for the joint 
effort by the US and Turkish governments and the Free Syrian Army 
(FSA) to overthrow the Assad regime in Damascus. Despite having 
designated the PKK as a “terrorist” organization, secret talks between 
the US and the left-wing Kurdish parties to this end have been held 
over the past two years.


That isn't the way I read either the FP article or the secret 
correspondence at its end. Most of the correspondence is between the US 
and the Kurdish National Council, a coalition of Syrian Kurdish parties 
that excludes the PYD. That is all quite an interesting discussion. Ford 
tries to encourage the KNC to join the Syrian Opposition Coalition 
(SOC), and before that existed, the Syrian National Congress. The KNC 
was open to the idea but was wary of the influence of Turkey and of the 
Muslim Brotherhood within the SOC/SNC, and their lack of recognition of 
Kurdish self-determination. Ford agreed that there were some "extremist" 
elements within the FSA, but said that was all the more reason the KNC 
should join to bolster the moderate, secular and liberal elements, and 
to push for clearer recognition of Kurdish rights. Eventually the KNC 
did join the SOC.


The other channel was the secret US discussions with the PYD since 2012. 
There is very little in the secret correspondence about the PYD, except 
the KNC's assertions that the Kurds don't like them but if pressed by an 
FSA which is under Turkish or MB influence they will choose the PYD, so 
the KNC tries to encourage the US to give them more aid to bolster their 
position as against the MB on one side and the PYD on the other. 
Interestingly, it also reveals that no such US aid was forthcoming. The 
correspondence also talks about the US back-channel to the PYD but says 
little about it. Several times it notes that the PKK and PYD deny 
accusations that they support the Assad regime.


I read nothing about the US conditioning support to the PYD on its 
support "for the joint effort by the US and Turkish governments and the 
Free Syrian Army (FSA) to overthrow the Assad regime in Damascus." 
First, that would require the US to have such a goal. In FP, Ford says 
"The main thing is we believed there needed to be a political solution 
that had to be negotiated (ie, the eternal and only US view of the 
Syrian crisis). The Kurds needed to be involved in that, even if we 
didn't think the PYD was fully representative of the Kurds. We wanted to 
understand why they continued to work with the regime and why they were 
hostile to Kurdish activists in the KNC."


"To know why they continued to work with the regime" is different to 
demanding they support the overthrow of the regime. As noted, the 
PKK/PYD deny the accusation in any case.


Then the article says that "Kurdish sources", not Ford, referring to 
now, not 2012-13, claimed "that Washington is currently pushing the PYD 
to distance itself from the Assad regime by joining the Syrian 
Coalition, working with the FSA, and improving ties with the KNC and 
Barzani."


Yes, the US probably wants the PYD to join the Syrian Opposition 
Coalition, which Washington sees as a necessary part of the bargaining 
for the "political solution that needs to be negotiated" with the 
regime, nothing to do with overthrowing the regime. As if the FSA on the 
ground care much about what the SOC says.


Finally, the article says "The recent agreement between the YPG and FSA 
factions to fight IS together might reflect a PYD eagerness to meet 
preconditions for U.S. assistance."


I think that's nonsense. The PYD and FSA are cooperating out of 
revolutionary necessity. I think both sides needed to overcome a few 
hang-ups first. But it is an on-the-ground thing.


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/07/washington_secret_back_channel_talks_with_kurdish_terrorists_turkey_syria_robert_ford_exclusive 



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[Marxism] A Kurdish voice from Kobane's battlefield

[jay rothermel via Marxism]

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http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201410910315549674

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: FSA fighting alongside Kobane Kurds

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism



FSA fighting alongside Kobane Kurds


Yes, going on for quite some time now, one of the few collaborations in 
the region based on principle rather than expediency or desperation.



How will the Socialist Alliance that described the FSA as warlords and

thieves respond to this, I wonder?

There was one ugly article that said that about the FSA (and worse, that 
rebels have committed even worse crimes than the regime!), but these 
were the opinions of the author, not the SA.


Most Links articles on the Rojava Kurdish struggle have been written by 
Dave Holmes. He wrote of exactly this FSA/YPG cooperation over a month 
ago:


"In western Syria, the city of Aleppo and its surrounds is menaced both 
by the forces of the Bashir Assad regime and those of the IS. Along with 
all rebel-held parts of the city, the Kurdish-controlled area is under 
great pressure. On August 22, the YPG and the Free Syrian Army concluded 
an agreement for a coordinated fight against these threats. As a 
condition of this pact, the YPG insisted that the reality of the 
liberated Rojava cantons be recognised" (http://links.org.au/node/4033)


There was a comment from Sam Charles Hammad that you recently sent the 
list that selective solidarity isn't real solidarity, referring to 
people who have spent years slandering the Syrian struggle and being 
apologists for a regime whose violence almost makes ISIS look innocent 
by comparison, and who then jump up and down supporting the Kurds. His 
comment was on the money if referring to Assad apologists, though one 
would want to be careful because there are plenty of others supporting 
Rojava who have always supported the Syrian uprising (including Sam 
himself).


Clearly, the FSA itself, in fighting alongside the YPG, cannot be 
accused of such selective solidarity (likewise its defence of Nusra 
against US bombing, despite Nusra's wavering and provocations over the 
last few months, is another example).


Both examples no doubt prove that the FSA is a bunch of 
warlords/smugglers/liver-eaters/thieves/US puppets/al-qaida 
jihadists/zionists/evil. Oh, and I nearly forgot: apart from being all 
that, the FSA also barely even exists any more as the whole insurgency 
has become jihadist. A good leftist needs to get all one's lines right. 



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Re: [Marxism] John Pilger: only a deal with Assad & Co. can stop ISIS

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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What a tortured article and argument.

Not so much a Pilger problem as a celebrity problem. Pilger has written 
excellent stuff where he does the real research and knows his stuff. But 
the expectation that anyone of his standing therefore has to have an 
opinion on everything in then world, when you simply can't be an expert 
on everything, leads to this disease of them satisfying that expectation 
by simply grabbing whatever the current "left" group-speak happens to be 
and presenting ignorance as the words of a wise icon.


Yeh let's (ie, "us", the imperialist powers) form an alliance with a 
genocidal fascist regime that was responsible for ISIS' rise in the 
first place, has collaborated with ISIS, has committed every crime ISIS 
has committed in spades, has killed dozens of times more people, and has 
never shown it is capable of winning even a battle with ISIS, no even to 
defend its own assets in the northeast in recent battles (unlike the FSA 
which fought ISIS out of north-west Syria earlier this year).


Never mind, Pilger is in good company calling for an imperialist 
alliance with Assad against the jihadists. Here are some of his 
co-thinkers:


Graham E. Fuller, Former vice chairman, CIA’s National Intelligence 
Council: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-e-fuller/us-assad-isis-strategy_b_5898142.html


Michael Young, senior policy analyst at RAND Corporation: 
http://www.usatoday.com/.../rand-isis-arab.../13863321/...


Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/opinion/leslie-gelb-iraq-must-not-come-apart.html?smid=tw-share


Tony Blair:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/80e396c8-caf5-11e3-ba95-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2zqtR03M5

British Conservative Party MP & former minister Malcolm Rifkind: 
on.ft.com/1p0G3Sq


Former chief of UK defence staff Lord Richards: 
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/05/david-cameron-syria-crush-isis-lord-richards-nato


Former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt: 
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-08-22/britain-must-build-bridges-with-assad-to-tackle-is/


Michael Hayden, retired US Air Force general and CIA head till 2009: 
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-13/240934-assad-win-may-be-syrias-best-option-ex-cia-chief.ashx#axzz2nKspUd4f


General John Allen, who commanded the Afghanistan War, and Richard 
Clarke, a former top counterterrorism adviser: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/24/obama-assad-partnership_n_5704531.html


Dimitri Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest 
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/washington-foreign-policy-hands-make-the-case-for-the-unthin#39p8mlr


Former US Ambassador to Syria, and to Iraq under President George W. 
Bush, and dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public 
Service at Texas A&M University, Ryan Crocker: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/world/middleeast/jihadist-groups-gain-in-turmoil-across-middle-east.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld&pagewanted=all&_r=1&


Crocker again, together with William Luers, a former U.S. ambassador to 
Venezuela and Czechoslovakia, and director of the Iran Project, and 
Thomas Pickering, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs 
from 1997 to 2000 and ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 
1992: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-a-us-iran-nuclear-deal-could-help-save-iraq/2014/07/11/cd2d1b72-085c-11e4-a0dd-f2b22a257353_story.html


Fred Kaplan, conservative member of US foreign policy elite, former aide 
to Les Aspin, a Democratic senator who backed the Nicaraguan contras: 
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2014/08/barack_obama_condemns_isis_s_violence_the_president_must_use_additional.html



-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism

Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2014 5:06 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] John Pilger: only a deal with Assad & Co. can stop 
ISIS


What a fucking nimrod.



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